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CHUKCH ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. 



PROCEEDINGS 



CONVENTION 



■WHICH JIET AT 



WORCESTER, MASS., MARCH 1, 1859 




NEW YORK: 

JOHN F. TROW, PRINTER, 877 & 379 BROADWAY, 

CORNEi: OF ■WHITE 6TUEET. 
1S59. 







CHURCH ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. 



PROCEEDINGS 



CONVENTION 



WHICH MET AT 



WORCESTER, MASS., MARCH 1, 1859, 



NEW YORK : 
JOHN F. TROW, PRINTER, 377 & 379 BROADWAY, 

CORNER OF WHITE STREET. 

1859. 



^M, 

e^^^ 



^ 



PROCEEDINGS 



A Convention of Christian brethren, on the subject of slavery, was 
assembled at the Mission Chapel in Worcester, Mass., at 10 A. M., 
March 1st, 1859. 

Hon. Elmer Brigham. of Westboro, Mass., was chosen Chairman. 

Rev. J. C. Webster, of Hopkinton, Mass., was chosen Clerk. 

Prayer was oflfered by Rev. Henry T. Cheever, of Jewett City, Ct., 
and all Christian brethren present were invited to sit and deliberate on 
the subject of the conference. 

It was then resolved, that it is a duty incumbent upon Christians to 
organize a Christian Anti-Slavery Society. While the names of brethren 
present were being enrolled, it was moved by Rev. Henry T. Cheever 
" That a committee of three be nominated by the chair, to submit a plan 
of organization to this Convention, after such Committee shall have been 
instructed by a free expression of opinion on the part of the Convention." 

The mover stated that on the "Oth of December last, at a meeting of 
ministers in Worcester, two of the brethren were appointed a Committee 
of Correspondence, to confer with such Christians as they had reason to 
believe would be favorable to an aggressive movement against slavery, 
by the Church, and to procure their assembling in conventions, at such 
Mme and place as might be convenient, in order to take into considera- 
tion the expediency of forming a Church Anti-Slavery Society. In ful- 
filment of that duty, the committee had written and conferred with 
divers brethren, from some of whom not present, he would now read 
communications, that would express the views with which he supposed 
most of the brethren had come together. 

Convention then gave attention to the following letters : 

^ From Rev. David Thurston, I). D. 

Litchfield Corner, Maine, Feb. 25, 1859. 
Rkv. J. C. Webster : 

My Dear Sir: — Yours of 31st ult. I received by way of Readfield, on tbe 6tb 

Inst. I have ever since felt a very strong desire to attend the proposed conveutioa 



at Worcester, next Tuesday. But duty seems to call rae here. I have thoucrht on 
the object of the Convention. What is necessary to be done ? What can the min- 
isters and Churches do ? What ought they to do ? These inquiries will doubtless 
be considered. 

It is not difficult to say what is needed : a deep and permanent conviction of the 
great sinfulness of slaveholding. Were such an intelligent conviction in the minds of 
all the ministers and members of the churches, they would be prepared to act effect- 
ively. This they never will do, until this conviction is produced. The ministers 
and members who have this conviction, must talk, preach, labor, and pray to pro- 
duce it in others. This they can do. Many preachers and private members, are 
extremely reluctant to look at the subject. They say, "We have nothing to do 
with it." Yet the subject has much to to with us, alio? us. There is not, probably, 
a church in this country which has not and does not feel the corrupting influence of 
the vile system of slavery. Is not the first thing necessary to be done to get the 
ministry and membership right on the subject ? Those who are right must then " cry 
aloud and spare not ; Uft up their voice like a trumpet ; and show the people of 
God their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins." No pains should be 
spared. Let it be made to appear that a piety, that ignores humanity, is not the 
religion of Christ, any more than a humanity that ignores piety. The Christianity 
of the Bible includes both. Either omitted or not made prominent in any system 
of religion, renders it essentially defective. James, 2d chapter. 

Ought not ministers and Christians, who understand this subject, to spread it 
out, to make it plain, to converse on it, to preach on it, to publish on it, to pray 
over it, until the Church, at least a strong majority, are right on the subject ? If 
those who see and deplore the disastrous influence which slavery exerts on the 
Church and the country, yes, not on this countiy merelj', but on the world, do not 
exert themselves to bring the Church to a right course, who will do it ? When 
wUl it be done ? 

We are acting in relation to this subject, not for the good of the Church here, 
or our country, but for the world. Could the Church be made to understand what 
an amount of influence we are exerting on other nations, especially the nations of 
Europe, in regard to the principles of freedom, they would feel that our responsibili- 
ties were fearfully great. Their efforts to have the dire curse of slavery removed would 
be energetic, persevering. The slaveholders and their abettors would have no rest. 

My prayers shall be that the Convention may be richly endowed with the wis- 
dom from above. 

Fraternally and cordially yours, for truth and right, 

David Thurston, (80 years the 6th inst.) 



From Rev. J. W. Mardork, D. D., Pastor of Baptist Church. Boston. 

Boston, Feb. 26, 1859. 
Rev. Henry T. Cheever, Jewett City : 

My Dear Sir : — A public engagement in another direction will prevent my 
meeting the friends of freedom and a pure Christianity in council, at Worcester, on 
Tuesday next. 

I cherish, and have not failed to express, on all fitting occasions, the deepesr re- 



pugnance to the system of chattel slavery, regarding it as the standing reproach of 
the democracy and Christianity of our land. I hold it not only as a violation of 
the rijrhts of man, but as a sin against God ; and am ready to unite with the friends 
of Christ in denouncing it as opposed to the law of love, and the spirit of Him 
in whose name we are called. And conceiving that the practice or defence of it is 
utterly incompatible with enlightened Christian character, I cannot fellowship it in 
any form, or by any act. 

I will express the hope, that the convention about to assemble in Worcester, 
will be able to agree on a platform which will unite the hearts and convictions of 
all Christians, who mean to be governed by rehgious principle instead of worldly 
expediency. At the same time, if I might offer a simple word of counsel, I would 
ask my brethren to exercise all reasonable forbearance towards that large body of 
honest, though cautious men, who are with us in sentiment, but who would be 
startled by any seeming harshness of denunciation. While we abate not one jot 
from the inflexibleness of truth and justice, let us be careful to breathe the meek 
spirit of the Gospel, " speaking the truth in love." 

Praying that the presence of God may be with you, I am, my dear sir, 

Yours, for the truth, 

J. W. MURDOCK. 



From Rev. C. W. Wallace, Manchester, N. H. 

Manchester, New Hampshire, Feb. 28, 1859. 

My Dear Brother : — I received your note which you addressed to me some days 
ago. It had been my purpose to go to Worcester to-morrow, but to-day I have had 
a call which seems to make it necessary for me to remain at home. 

I regret my inability to meet with some of the true and whole-hearted friends 
of freedom. Let me say, however, my whole heart is with you in any measure 
adapted to bring the Church of Christ in this country to a right position in regard 
to the sin of slavery. I feel that here is the great difficulty. The Tract Society 
at New York, and the New York Observer, represent in this respect, but too nearly, 
a large part of the Church. 

May God give you wisdom, and may all who may meet with you at Worcester, 
be led in the path of duty. 

Will you be so kind, if you receive this note in season, to remember me to the 
brethren who meet with you. And please inform me of the results of your meeting. 

Yours, in the love of Christ, 

C. W. Wallace. 

Rev, J. C. Webster. 



From Rev. J. A. Hazen, Lisbon. Connecticut. 

Lisbon, Connecticut, Feb. 17, 1859. 

Dear Brother Cheever : — I have received and read your letter with much interest, 
and shall make an effort to attend the proposed convention, as I think a delegate 
from this Church will also do. It appears evident to me, that neither the enormity 
of the iniquity of slaverj', nor the greatness of the threatening danger to the Church, 



and to the country, is felt by the body of the mniistry or Churches. So far as I can 
see, there were less evident warnings of some of the past great strides of slavery, end- 
ing with the Dred Scott decision, than there is now of the reopening and autlioriza- 
tion of the slave-trade. And none can tell what next. 

I have no definite idea of the steps contemplated being taken at the convention ; 
should be glad if you would send me one or two of the leading articles of the pro- 
posed constitution, and enough of the resolutions to give me an idea of their drift. 

You may not, perhaps, be aware, that this Church has for years been standing 
on what has been regarded as extreme Anti-Slavery ground. So long ago as 
1843, it adopted and published a strong expression of its views respecting Slavery, 
and passed the following resolution as its rule : 

" Resolved, that we feel constrained, in a spirit of meekness, to reprove and re- 
buke all professing Christians, ministers, and Churches, who tolerate slavery in word 
or deed^ and that we cannot extend the fellowship of the Gospel to those who continue 
to enslave their fellow-men after the faithful admonition of their Christian brethren.' 

And, once at least, since that time, they have had occasion to apply the rule, in 
debarring from the pulpit and from the communion-table, a slaveholding minister, 
a friend of the acting pastor. 

If all the non-slaveholding Churches had then taken like ground, would not the 
result be nearer what Albert Barnes dimly saw, when he closed his volume with the 
memorable words : *' There is no power OUT of the Church that could sus- 
tain Slavery an hour, if it were not sustained IN it." " Let every religious 
denomination detach itself from all connection with slavery ; and utter a calm and 
deliberate voice to the world, and the work will be done." 

If I should be prevented from attending with you, you will certainly have my 
hearty sympathy and concurrence in any judicious action. I have written to my 
brother, and sent him a copy of your letter. He will, I am confident, warmly 
approve of the movement. 

I am, most sincerely yours, 

J. A. Hazen. 



from Rev. Kdivin B. Foster, LovjcU, Ma!^sachui<etts. 

Lowell, Feb. 19, 1859. 
Dear Brother Wehster : — ^Your favor of January 31, was duly received. My 
warm sympathies are with you in the attempt to lead on to an " advanced position " 
on the subject of Slavery. The Church must take this position, in my judgment, 
or nothing will check the encroachments of that power which is determined to sub- 
due to its uses, all civil authorities, and all ecclesiastical influences in the country- 
Some doubt this ambitious purpose on the part of Slavery, but the history of 
Southern Disimionism, both in Church and State ; the whole course of national 
legislation, and of judicial decision on the Kansas question ; the entire voice of 
Southern divines, and Southern Statesmen, and the Southern press, make the mat- 
ter very clear to my own mind. 

I fear that new territories are to be annexed, and to be settled with the " pecu- 
liar institution " as a yoke upon them, and a dishonor to the Republic forever. I 
fear that the foreign slave-trade is to be reestablished and added to the domestic, 



for the perpetuity of Slavery, I fear that the Northern States are yet to taste the 
bitter fruits of this system of bondage, in more terrible form than ever before, in 
the suppression of free discussion ; in the dishonor of free labor ; in the prostitution 
of the public mind to the support of a great injury to the nation, and a great sin 
against God. 

Jf the Church awake not — if their position be not unequivocal and firm — if tlieir 
movement be not outward, I see not any hope of safety for any great religious in- 
terest of the land. If my health is sufficient I shall be happy to attend the proposed 
meeting next week. It is not probable, however, that I can go. 

Fraternally, and very truly yours, 

E. B. FOSTEK. 



From Deacon Simon Page, HaLloweU^ Maine. 

Hallowell, February 25, 1859. 
Brother Cheever, 

Dear Sir : — Your favor of the 22d is received. It would afford me much pleas- 
ure to be present at the meeting you propose, to be held at Worcester next Tuesday, 
but the short notice renders it impossible for me to make such arrangements as 
would allow me to be absent from home at that time. I most heartily approve of 
the object of your convention, and the formation of a Church Anti-Slavery Society. 
I think the time has fully come when the Church should arise and proclaim to this 
nation and the whole world, that Slavery is tjiat acciu-sed thing with which she cannot 
and will not hold fellowship. It is humiliating, indeed, that so many of our church- 
members, those who profess to have their lives regulated by the principles of the 
Gospel, do wink at, and even give countenance to the heaven-daring sin of Slavery, 
I do not understand how it is, that any one who has had the operations of God's 
Spirit on the heart, so as to change it into a new heart, can be left in such darkness, 
as not, at the very first glance, to see that Slavery is wholly opposed to the pre- 
cepts of the Bible. It does seem strange that the Spirit should leave so much ol' its 
work undone, and is there not reason to fear that in such cases the work has not 
been commenced by the Spirit ? I hope you will have a good meeting, one which 
will be the commencement of a new era in the Anti-Slavery cause, and which, with 
God's blessing, will work a change in the Church. 

Our pastor. Rev. Mr. Butterfield, would favor the objects of the Convention, but 
cannot be there. Yours truly, 

Simon Page, 



From the Uev. Gcoryc Shepard. D. D. 

Theological Semin.^^ry, Bangor, Feb. 14, 1859. 
My Dear Brother Cheever : — I fear it will not be in my power to go to Wor- 
cester at the time designated for the Convention, I trust the Spirit of the Lord will 
be with you, and that you will be led to the adoption of some plan which shall 
ha.sten the deliverance of the Church and the nation from the great taint and curse 
of Slavery. Yours, most truly, 

G. Shepard. 



8 

The foregoing letters having been read, Rev. Messrs. Cheever. of 
Jevvett City, Ct., and Hunt, of Franklin, Mass., and Brother J. A. Fitch, 
Esq., of Hopkinton, Mass., were appointed a committee to report a plan 
of organization. 

While the Committee were withdrawn, Rev. William Goodell, of 
New York, addressed the Convention ; and the roll of members was 
made up as follows : 

MEMBERS. 

Rev. Samuel Hunt, Franklin, Mass. 

" W. H. Beecher, North Brookfield, Mass. 

" C. Gushing, " " " 

Dea. Wm. P. Haskell, " " " 

" H. L. Johnson, Jewett City, Conn. 
Rev. L. H. Shildon, Westboro, Mass. 
Hon. Elmer Brigham, " " 

Rev. Henry Allen, Saxonvilie, " 
Abijah Wood, Esq., Westboro, " 
J. A. Fitch, Esq., Hopkinton, " 
Samuel R. Heywood, Esq., Worcester, Mass. 
E. H. Heywood, Esq., " " 

Rev. S. Kelley, Laurell-street Methodist Church, Worcesier. Mhss. 
Edward Gilbert, Esq., New York. N. Y. 
Rev. Elnathan Davis, Fitchburg, Mass. 

" William Goodell, New York, N. Y. 

" Jona. Cable, Albany, Athens County, Ohio. 

" J. C. Webster, Hopkinton, Mass. 

" T. R. Marvin, Winchendon, " 

" T. E. Bliss, Blackstone, Mass. 
Charles Ballard, Esq., Pleasant-street Baptist Church, Worcester 

Mass. 
Rev. Horace James, Worcester, Mass. 

" M. Richardson, " " 

David Metcalf, Esq., " " 

Rev Georue Trask, Fitchburg, Mass. 

" Samuel Palmer, Wesleyan minister, Worcester, Mass, 

"Mansfield French, of Cincinnati Conference, Ohio. 
Geo. B. Cheever, D. D., New York, N. Y. 
Rev. Samuel Souther, Worcester, Mass. 
Dea. IcuABOD Washburn, Worcester, Mass. 
Rev. Henry T. Cheever, Jewett City, Conn. 



Samuel A. Arnold, Quaker, Worcester, Mass. 

R. G. Cochran, Congregational Church, Francistown, N. H. 

Rev. George W. Basset, Washington, D. C. 

" Chester Field, Methodist Ch., Worcester, Mass. 
George W. Russel, Central Congregational Church, Worcester, Mass. 
Ezra Bingham, Lisbon, Hanover County, Conn. 
Lee Sprague, Central Congregational Church, Worcester, Mass. 
Joshua Coffin, First Congregational Church, Newbury, Mass. 
Rev. D. W. FoNCE, Baptist Church, Worcester, Mass. 
L. G. Mason, Union Congregational Church, Worcester, Mass. 
J. Nichols, Salem-street Congregational Church, Worcester, Mass. 
David R. Heywood, Salem-street Congregational Church, Worcester, 

Mass. 
Rev. George Allen, Worcester, Mass. 

Committee on organization presented, through their Chairman, the 
following Report, in order to the free discussion of which, prior to 
final action thereon, the Convention was resolved into a Committee of 
the Whole, and while discussion was pending upon the terms of the 
Preamble, Convention took a recess for dinner. 

PREAMBLE. 

Under profound convictions of the inherent sinfulness of American Slavery and 
Slaveholding — deeply mortified and grieved by its continued toleration and de- 
fence in the Church — fearful of the impending judgment of the Ahnighty upon 
our beloved country on accovmt of it — and believing it is in the power of the peo- 
ple of God, under Divine guidance, to accomplish its overthrow, we, a company 
of ministers and Christians, of one mind and heart, as in duty bound by our com- 
mon allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ, do solemnly pledge ourselves to one 
another, and before God, to remember them that are in bonds as bound with 
THEM, and to do all that we can for the utter destruction of that atrocious system 
of chattel slavery which is maintained in the United States. And as a means to 
that end, we hereby form ourselves into a Society, to be called the Church Anti- 
Slavery Society of the United States, to be governed by the following Constitution, 
and to maintain this declaration of principles : 

Declaration of Principles. 

1. The rights of man as man sacred and inalienable, without distinction of 
blood or races. 

2. Property in man impossible, as being without grant from the Creator, and 
equally contrary to natural justice and to revealed religion. 

3. The system of American Slavery and the practice of slaveholding essentially 
sinful and anti-Christian, and to be dealt with, therefore, as such, by Christian 
churches and ministers. 

4. The utter inadequacy and impossibility of any remedy or relief from slavery, 



10 

but one that insists tipon its inherent wrongfulness, its total intrinsic baseness, and 
denies absolutely the wUd and guilty fantasy that man can have property in man ! 

5. The duty of one family or section of the Christian Church to rebuke and re- 
fuse fellowship to another section of the visible church, that denies the rights of man 
and the common brotherhood of humanity, by defending Slavery, and folding to 
its bosom slave sellers, slave buyers, and slave holders. 

6. No compromise with Slavery allowable, but its total extinction to be de- 
manded at once, in the name of God, who has commanded, •' to loose the bonds of 
wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that 
ye break every yoke." 

7. The acknowledgment and adoption by the American Clergy and the 
-American Churches, as the great providential and divinely appointed duty of this 
generation — to destrot slavery ! 

8. The Church and the IVIinistry to form the conscience of the nation in 
respect to Slavery, and to make it loyal to the Higher Law, against all unjust 
judgments of Courts, and unrighteous legislation of Congress. 

9. The Word of God our Charter to Freedom and our armory against Slavery, 
and any assertion that the Lord God sanctions Slavery, practical infidehty. 

10. Ultimate success sure, in the warfare of oppression, to a faithful ministry 
and witnessing church. 

CONSTITUTION. 

Art. I. The great object of this Association being to unite aU Christians, on the 
basis of the Word of God, against Slavery, and to concentrate the energies of the 
Church and the Ministry upon the abolition of that great sin, the only condition 
of membership shall be the adoption of its pledge and principles, and members of 
local societies formed on these principles shall be members in fuU of this Society. 

Art. II. The officers of this Society shall be a President, Vice-President, Secre- 
tary, Treasurer, and an Executive Committee of five, to be chosen aanually by 
ballot. 

Art. III. The duties of the Officers and Committee shall be, to provide for and 
call public meetings at such times and places as they see fit, in order to advocate 
the principles of the Society, to mould public opinion, and to induce action by the ■ 
churches with reference to Slavery, and to pervade the realm of politics with the 
principles of religion. 

Art. IY. Beside local and extraordinary meetings, which may be called at the 
discretion of the Officers and Committee, there shall be at least one public meeting 
annually during the Religious Anniversary week, in the cities of Philadelphia, 
]Sew York and Boston, for the free expression of the anti-slavery principles and 
sentiment of the Christian Church, as declared by this Society. 

Art. V. The expenses incurred by the Officers of this Society, in the prosecu- 
tion of their duties, by the maintenance of public meetings, lectures, and the use 
of the Press, shall be met by the voluntary contributions of members, and by such 
donations as Benevolent individuals shall bestow for the uses of the Society. 

Art. YI. Ihis Constitution may be amended by a vote of two-thirds of the 
members present and voting at any meeting, notice of said amendment having 
been given at a previous meeting. 



11 



Afternoon Session. 

Convention was opened with prayer by Rev. Samuel Hunt. It was 
announced to the body that the Wurcester County Central Associa- 
tion were in session in the city ; and it was moved by Rev. Mr. James 
that a message be sent to that body, to the effect that this Convention 
was open to all warm-hearted anti-slavery men, and that on such terras 
the members of that Association would be welcome. 

Discussion was resumed upon the phraseology of the preamble, and 
verbal alterations were made. Divers suggestions and substitutions 
were offered as to the name of the proposed organization, but none 
were agreed upon. Explanations were given of the views and motives 
of the Committee, in drafting the document and reporting the same. 

Rev. H. T. CiiEEVER wished to have it distinctly understood 
that the present action upon the document was not final, it being now 
in the hands of the body as Committee of the Whole. Convention 
would have another opportunity to pass upon these questions ; when, 
after discussion, the motion should be made to adopt the whole Consti- 
tution by the Convention, 

It becoming necessary for the President of the Convention to leave 
at this juncture, Rev. J. C. Webster was appointed Chairman, and 
Edward Gilbert, Esq., Secretary, pro lent. 

Moved by Rev. Mr. GooOell : — That article 3d of the Constitution 
be so amended as to read — "and to inculcate the duties of civil gov- 
ernment, civil rulers, and citizens, in respect tu its overthrow," instead 
of the words — " and to pervade the realm of politics with the principles 
of religion." 

Rev. Mr. Goodell felt that the legitimate work of the Church 
and the Ministry was to instruct the people in their political duties with 
respect to Slavery. The expression in the Constitution, as reported, 
was too general. It would allow the construction of meaning the 
preaching of politics, but it was not specific enough as to the kind of 
politics to be preached. lie held that the political duty of every 
church, and minister, and voting citizen, was to overthrow Slavery. He 
bad so taught in a church to which he once ministered ; and thechuroh 
stood by him, and they agreed upon men to be nominated and voted 
for, to office, in church prayer meetings. And the result was, in due 
time, that the church was saved the trouble of nominating, for the lead- 
ing men of the town took very good care to put up only such men as 
anti-slavery Christians could conscientiously vote for ; and it came to 
pass that, in town meeting, they passed a resolution unanimously, not to 



12 

let the Fugitive Slave Law be enforced within their limits. So much 
for the church and the minister, united, in teaching men their political 
duties in respect to Slavery. 

Rev. Mr. Richardson contended it was as much a minister's 
duty to preach politics, in the true sense of the word, as to preach 
Christ ; that a minister could not preach Christ truly without preach- 
ing politics. Our political and Christian duties are inseparable. Our 
Christianity was to be carried into everything. And if we had anything 
to do, as Christians and Ministers, it was to carry Christianity into poli- 
tics. It was the severance of the two that had nearly proved our ruin ; 
and the great want of the times was, the Christianization of our politics 
and business. He preached as freely in his pulpit against the powers 
that be, when they do wrong, as he should against Aliab and Jezebel, 
were they now on the stage ; and he asked no man's permit for it. It 
belonged to him to do so, as a Christian minister. He would have the 
Constitution explicit on that point. 

The amendment was carried. 

It was here suggested that a new Committee be raised to report 
another and shorter preamble ; — that the one before the Convention 
was more like a statement of the whole platform than a preamble. 

Edward Gilbert, Esq. : — Why have any preamble at all ? By 
common acceptation, the preamble furnishes a rule of interpretation for 
the Constitution which follows, and should therefore contain a con- 
cise statement of the views and purposes of the framers. Could the pre- 
amble be made shorter without destroying its character as a preamble ? 
Besides, another reference to a new Committee is hardly in good taste 
or propriety, not to say quite irregular. One Committee has reported 
it as it reads, and it now remains for the Convention to act upon it — 
not to refer it. 

Objections were raised to the phrase — " inherent sin of Slavehold- 
inp" occurring in the preamble, and a motion^ was made to strike 
it out. 

Rev. Mr. Cushing maintained that such terms would lead to 
great misunderstanding. A large majority of Anti-Slavery Christians 
do not believe Slaveholding to be a sin per se. This is the prevailing 
anti-slavery theology. This is the theology taught at Andover and 
Yale, and believed by nineteen-twentieths of the Christian ministers of 
New England. The use of these words would raise a storm of opposi- 
tion, such as would immediately crush this movement. He was an 
anti-slavery man, and had been for twenty years. His room at Yale 
College was known as the anti-slavery head-quarters, and he was 



13 

Secretary of the Yale Anti-Slavery Society when Sherman L. Booth 
was its President. 

Rev. Mr. James was as much an anti-slavery man as any pres- 
ent. He was in perfect sympathy with this movement, and, as he ap- 
prehended, so were all the anti-slavery Christians in New England. It 
seemed to him that those who are in sympathy should be united. This 
objection is only to the phraseology, and that because it will lead to 
misunderstanding, and cause the failure of the movement. His ante- 
cedents were before the world. He had always been opposed to Slave- 
ry, had preached against it, and should continue to do so, whether he 
belonged to this society or not. A man, as he believed, may hold 
slaves for benevolent purposes. 

Dr. Cheever : — Slave-holding is the concrete sin : Slavery, the 
system that grows out of it. We do not wish to aim at an ab- 
straction. Slave-holding is man-stealing, a crime punishable by 
God's law with death. The relation of master to slave is not 
recognized by God's Word, and cannot be begun or maintained 
without man-stealing. No one, in buying slaves to set them free, exer- 
cises the legal functions of a slave-holder. That is man-protecting, not 
slave-holding or man-stealing. The sin is inherent in slave-holding, not 
in the system, except through this. Slave-holding was before the sys- 
tem of Slavery, and the system was instituted to protect and maintain 
it. The system which protects and maintains a sin is wrong, but only 
so because the sin is wrong. When the sin goes, the system will go 
with it. God's Word is explicit in reference to the sin, but says 
nothing of the system. We are to take God's Word. 

We are not to dilute God's Word to bring it down either to men's 
low ideas or evasive technicalities. A Christian man, who holds a fel- 
low man, to preserve him from the cruelty of pirates, who would make 
a slave of him, is not a slave-holder, but a freeholder, the holder of a 
freeman, to keep him from being bought, sold, or held by anybody else 
as a slave. But if he himself, even though professing the highest 
benevolence, holds him as a slave, as a chattel, as his property, then he 
is a slave-holder, not a man-holder. If, under the right to do wrong, 
which the law gives him, he holds a fellow being in subjection against 
his will, giving him no wages, setting the grasp of slave law on him if 
he attempt to escape, then he may affirm ever so earnestly that slave- 
holding in itself is not sin, and that he practises slave-holding for the 
slave's good, and not for his own profit ; but this evasion can avail him 
nothing. This evasion we must take entirely away. SLAVE-holding in 
all cases is sin. The holding of a man as a slave, as property, is sin. 



14 

and can be nothing else, under all circumstances. The holding of a 
DQan as your biotber, of whom God has said to you, Thou art thy 
brother's keeper, the keeper of his freedom and his rights, the holding of 
him under slave law and by means of slave law, out of such brotherly 
love, to keep him from being a slave, is not slave-holding, but brother- 
keeping, for a brother's good. 

Now to call his benevolent action slave-holding, and on such ground 
to say that slave-holding is not always sinful, is to frame a falsehood, an 
evasion, under cover of which the slave-holder can effectually beat off 
all your blows against his guilt. He can tell you that the sin is not iu 
the act but the intention ; and how dare you, or can you, pronounce 
on his intention ? Eis slave-holding is carried on under justificatory 
circumstances and with benevolent intentions. He holds a slave, and 
holds hira as a slave, but avers that he holds him for the slave's 
good. 

Now from God's Word it is plain that the holding of a man as a 
slave is sin, a sin worthy of death, under all circumstances. Slave- 
holding is the holding of a man as a slave, not as a free man. and there- 
fore, slave-holding under all possible circumstances, is sin. But the 
holding of a man, not as property, but as a free man, to keep him from 
being a slave, is not slave-holding, and cannot be permitted to pass as 
such without the greatest perversion and injury. This is the technical 
evasion under which you would shield slave-holding and the slave- 
holder from the withering denunciations of God's Word against hold- 
ing human beings as slaves. If you do not hold them as slaves, you 
are not a slave-holder ; if you do hold them as slaves you are a slave- 
holder. Your merely holding them in the eye of the laio as slaves 
does not make you a slave-holder, if you hold them for their own rights 
and protection ; for you do not hold them as slaves, but as free men ; 
and the law cannot make you a slave-holder, though, if it could get 
hold of those men whom you hold as free men, it would make them 
slaves. You cannot properly be called a slave-holder, unless you your- 
self hold these human beings over which the law gives you such power, 
as your property, your slaves. But if you do not hold ihem as your 
slaves, you are no more a slave-holder than any man who hires his 
servants, and pays them their wages on a voluntary contract, is a slave- 
holder. But if you hold them as your property, then you are guilty of 
the crime of slave-holding, which, under all possible circumstances, 
is sin. 

The Convention here adjourned for a public meeting at half-past 
seven o'clock in the evening, at Mechanics' Hall, and to meet for business 
at nine o'clock next morninof. 



15 

The President of the Convention, Hon. Elmer Brighara, took the 
chair in the evening, and the doings of the day were read by Edward 
Gilbert, Esq., secretary pro tern. After which the Rev. Dr. Cheever ad- 
dressed a large audience, enforcing the Bible argument against slavery 
with irresistible logic. He maintained the position that such a thing as 
property in man was nowhere countenanced in the Bible; that wher- 
ever buying and selling of servants is found, it meant simply the buying 
and selling of services, not of men ; and that God's Fugitive Law, while 
it commanded the restoration of every species of property, expressly en- 
joined that servants escaped from bondage were not to be given up to 
their masters. These truths were so thoroughly well understood by 
the people of Judea, in the time of Christ and the apostles, that there 
was no need of uttering a single word in addition, in denunciation of 
slavery. Accordingly the New Testament says very little about the 
question. The speaker then applied his logic with merciless severity to 
the system of slavery, as maintained and defended in the United States, 
and concluded by an earnest appeal to all Christians, to separate them- 
selves from those who sanction, by practice or theory, the holding of 
their fellow-men in slavery. He also urged the duty of Christian 
ministers, lo make use of a proper construction of the Scriptures in 
fulminating deserved anathemas against the institution of slavery, so 
contrary to both the natural and revealed law of God. 

Second Day, March 2d. 

Session opened at nine o'clock A. M., with prayer by Rev. Samuel 
Souther. 

The doings of the previous day were read from the Worcester Tran- 
script. Discussion was resumed on the motion to strike out from the 
preamble the words, " Inherent sinfulness of slave-holding." 

Rev. W. H. Beecher. — Slave-holding is essentially a sin. If there 
are exceptions to this rule they can be stated. So it might be said that 
drunkenness is a sin, though a man, in an exceptional case, may be in- 
nocent, as where the liquor is forced down him ; yet the rule that 
drunkenness is a sin should stand. 

Rev. Mr. Allen. — The expression is tautological. If slavery means 
anything it means slave-holding. 

Rev. Mr. Basset. — The tautology is more apparent than real. Slave- 
holding is a phrase bearing a definite and distinct application, as is well 
known. 

Rev. Mr, Cdshing reviewed the diflferent phases of anti-slavery 



16 

sentiment, as expressed at different times and by different parties, and 
in various newspapers, religious and political platforms, &c., and argued 
that the object of the convention was to unite all warm-hearted Chris- 
tians against the common foe. Gerrit Smith acknowledged the power 
of the 3,050 clergymen of New England, when they united in a protest 
against the Nebraska Bill, and he thanked them for it. The power 
consisted in harmony and union. It is idle to alienate so large and 
powerful a body by the use of one word. We did not come here to 
make language — we were not to form a philological society, or to fix 
interpretations. But we are here to use language according to its 
legitimate and common signification. If the public made a distinction 
between slavery and slave-holding, admitting, that while slavery was 
wrong, the legal relations of slave-holding might be innocent, let us rec- 
ognize it, and not undertake to reform the language of mankind. 

Rev. Mr. Goodell. — We are here to put ourselves right. I we are in 
the right, we shall have the majority, for God is always in the majority* 
We wish to use the most suitable and exact words, and fear nothing for 
the result. If we have all the world on our side, and yet are wrong 
in reference to the thing, we shall gain nothing except wisdom by 
defeat. 

Rev. Mr. Allen did not wish to be misunderstood. He meant 
slavery to include the practice of slave-holding, and would be satisfied 
with the words " sinfulness of slavery in theory and practice." 

Rev. Mr. Cablk had lived in a slave State, and knew that there 
•was a distinction there made between slave-holding and slaveiy ; and 
the same was made by many theologians. 

Rev. H. T. Cheever had become painfully convinced that it 
was owing to the general unwillingness of doctors of divinity to call 
the act of slave-holding a sin, that they were utterly powerless against 
the aggressions of slavery. It was so before the Tract Society. In the 
caucus preparatory to the meeting last May, at the church on Lafayette 
square, "we had heard the position that the act of slave-holding was ne- 
cessarily sinful, stigmatized as ultra and radical, and unfit to be upon 
the lips of Christian men in the Tract Society, and we had heard the 
distinction attempted between the principles of common morality and 
the dogmas of reformatory morality, and that the latter were out of 
place in the Tract Society. And going before the great meeting on 
such a platform, what did they meet but ignominious defeat ? That 
they would always meet, till they took the high ground of the intrinsic 
sinfulness of slave-holding as the only reason for meddling with slavery 
at all by the Tract Society or the Church. 



17 

He belonged to a large association in wbicli there prevailed tlie view 
of slavery as not malum in se, but only in its attendant evils, and it 
rendered all who held it powerless against the great wickedness. Had 
often contended with brethren that slave-holding was just as much 
maliwi in se as murder was. Let us say it in our platform, that 
there was inherent sinfulness in it, and then we should be right, and 
we might do something toward destroying the tyranny of an unmean- 
ing dogma as applied to slaver}'. 

The views of opposing parties and wings in the great anti-slavery 
army were here adverted to by several speakers, and the supposed leaders 
of different schools of anti-slavery sentiment, were personally designated. 

Rev. Mr. Basset wished all personalities avoided. We were here 
to discuss a document on the basis of God's truth, and not to discuss 
individuals or their opinions. 

Rev. AV. H. Beecher wished to take the broad ground of truth. 
We must take the ground that slave-holding is sin. This is the very 
point we are contending for. The Presbyterians had always taken the 
ground claimed by the other side, and nothing, therefore, would come 
of it. We do not wish to organize now to go the same route over 
again, and come out nowhere. The people would not misunderstand, 
for they were ahead of us in this respect. He was not a stickler for 
terms, but would contend for the truth. 

Rev. Mr. Gushing belonged to an association of seventeen minis- 
ters ; and if the word Slave-holding was used, but one out of that asso- 
ciation would come into this movement. 

Rev. Mr. French was from the West. Out there he had heard 
the farmers say, that, in opening up their farms, when tall oaks and 
knotty beeches were left standing here and there, and the under-brush 
only cut down, the gradual rotting and falling of the branches and 
trunks caused more loss to the farmers, in the spoiling of their grain 
and killing their cattle, than would have been all the expense of cutting 
them down and rooting them out, in the beginning. He thought we 
had better profit by their experiences, and make clean work at the 
beginning. Better out with stumps and roots, and clear the ground now. 

This monster evil of Slavery was like the mammoth tree of Nebu- 
chadnezzar's dream, in whose wide-spread branches unclean birds had 
been lodging, and beasts of the earth gathering to its shelter. He 
would not be content to merely girdle the tree, nor yet to lop off only a 
few of its branches; but he trusted this society would be the angel of a 
kind Providence to cut off every limb, and to hew down its gnarled and 
defiant trunk, till nothing was left of it but a mass of ruins. 
2 



18 

Reference had been made to "the union of the greatest number 
possible" in this effort. Union, and the union of great men especially, 
is desirable. But there may be union of men, without union with God. 
What we want is union with the truth, and union with God, in this 
matter. If God be with us, who, then, can be against us ? Great men 
are not always wise, nor yet always strong. 

God never depended on numbers. He could save by few as well as 
by many. His own Church (the Methodist Episcopal) had gloried in 
numbers, but God had humbled her. A large portion had sloughed off 
who took the "South Side view" of " the sum of all villainies ;" and it 
was feared that when those in the Church who fear God and work right- 
eousness, shall take a stand at their approaching General Conference, 
the work of humiliation and purifying will be found to have been done 
only in part. If the work be done by the force of numbers, no glory 
would be given to God. With him, the "single eye," the fearing God 
rather than man, the having no respect of persons, is the test of soldier- 
ship. 

At the first blast of the war-trnmpet, when Israel was about to be 
delivered out of ihe hands of the Midianitish oppressor, under the leader- 
ship of the barley-thresher, no less than thirty-two thousand men rushed 
into the field. After a full survey of the numbers and strength of their 
enemy, the danger to be encountered, and the standing and character of 
God's chosen leader for them, there was trembling in the ranks. All 
who were fearful and unbelieving were permitted to return home, which 
was the proper place for them ; and of his own real state of mind, each 
man was allowed to determine for himself. Twenty-two thousand men 
were of this class. Ten thousand determined, and very honestly, no 
doubt, that they were strong enough for the work. And, doubtless, 
they were, in their own eyes ; but God, who seeth not as man seeth, 
determined otherwise, and He applied the test. All were to march 
over a brook, and in the manner of their drinking, a difference would 
appear. Some lapped up the water with the tongue, as a dog lap- 
peth : scooping it up in a hurry, and putting their hands to their 
mouth, as they passed over. Others bowed down on their knees to 
drink water, and took it, as one would say, rather too leisurely for 
soldiers. Now, this was a peculiar test. The Lord had chosen three 
hundred as the instruments of victory. And even tJiey were not allow- 
ed to achieve it by arms. For the Lord was with Gideon — and Gideon 
commanded each one to get a pitcher, and they all got pitchers ; and 
each one to get a lamp, and they all got lamps. And then he com- 
manded them all to blow their trumpets, and they all blowed their 



19 

trumpets, and broke their pitchers, and cried, " Tlie sword of the Lord 
and of Gideon." Thus the Lord gave the victory, and to His name was 
all the glory. So here : we are not to think what the professors at Yale 
or Andover will think of us, but only whether the Lord will approve. 
The victory is the Lord's. lie will choose His instruments, appoint the 
number of them, and to His name will be the glory. It is no concern 
of ours whether he appoint this work to be done by three hundred or 
three, or whether the men are theological professors or barley-threshers. 
He often wished tfie D.D.'s of Yale and Andover had to mount the old 
Itinerant horse of Methodism. It would jolt some of their folly out of 
them. 

He offered, as an amendment, to substitute the w'ords, " inherent sin 
of slave-holding in principle and p)ractice.^'' 

Dr. Cheever preferred the original form. Or, if any change, he 
would prefer the words, '■'■sinfulness of slave-holding and of the system 
that grows out of it" This goes to the bottom of the matter. Slave- 
holding is the sin. The system comes afterwards. We must strike at 
the sin. David would, doubtless, have agreed with Nathan as to the 
abstract sin of adultery, previous to the affair with Uriah. But he 
could not endure the terrible denunciation, " Thou art the man I " in 
reference to his own act. It was the act that the prophet aimed at. 

Kev. Mr. Allen was opposed to the word. He wanted a broad 
platform. The thing was repeated too often. 

Rev. H. T. Cheever. — Would the brother accept the terms, the 
" sinfulness of Slavehokling ? " 

Rev. Mr. Allen. — That is what I have always believed. 

Rev. H. T. Cheever. — Will you accept it here ? 

Rev. Mr Allen. — It is not the right place for it. It is expressed 
elsewhere. 

Rev. Mr. Davis believed that the South would understand, and 
respect an issue like this, taken upon the inherent sinfulness of Slave- 
holding. It was his custom to exclude Slaveholders and the justitiers 
of slavehokling from his Communion. Not long since, a lady of wealth 
and distinction, from the South, was present at his church on Com- 
munion Sabbath. He gave the invitation and notice of exclusion in 
the usual form. The lady did not go, but remained to express to him 
in unequivocal terms, her gratification at the stand he had taken, and 
her approval of his consistency. 

Rev. Mr. Basset. — Slave owning is a legal term ; but Slavehokling 
implies that there is voluntary action on the part of the owner, to re- 
strain the liberty of the slave. The Slaveholder holds the slave without 



20 

the slave's consent. That only is Slaveholding. Holding a man at his 
own request, that he may be preserved for freedom, out of the clutches 
of another who will keep him as a slave, is a very different thing from 
Slaveholding. 

Rev. Mr. Webster. — Here is the gist of the whole movement. We 
had better go home, unless we can assert Slaveholding, the concrete 
act, a sin. The movement began in Massachusetts. He did not want 
any brethren to think it started in New York. It (^-iginated here. 

Rev. Mr. Allen would accept the terms " Slavery and the prac- 
tice of Slaveholding." 

Rev. Mr. James had been pointed at in all the remarks, and did 
not wish any here to think that he denied that Slaveholding is a sin- 
He only objected to the word inherent, because it would bring down a 
storm of opposition, which would crush lis in the beginning. 
Rev. H. T. Cheever. — Does not the sin inhere in the act ? 
Rev. Mr. James. — Sin is always in the heart of the sinner. 
Rev. H. T. Cheever. — But the act is the aflfection of the heart car- 
ried into execution, and that is the thing aimed at in God's laws, is 
the thing called sin. A man's act without intention is no act, but is an 
accident. In every instance of voluntary Slaveholding there is inherent 
sin. Man-keeping for "freedom, with the man's consent, is no more 
Slaveholding than man-killing by accident is murder. But sin inheres 
ahke in the act of murder and in the act of Slaveholding. 

Rev. Mr. James would accept the terms " inherent sinfulness of 
Slavery in principle and practice." 

Rev. Mr. Gushing hoped that the body would take deliberate 
and strong ground, to suit themselves. Their act would exclude him, 
and he would venture to say, nineteen-twentieths of the ministers of 
New England. 

Rev. Mr. Cable knew that Slaveholders had often hid themselves 
under this distinction, between the sinfulness of Slavery in general and 
the innocence of Slaveholding in particular cases, and therefore urged 
that the Convention would be explicit. 

Rev. Mr. Goodell respected Brother Gushing for his honesty, 
but presumed he would not exclude Slaveholders from his communion 
or pulpit. 

Rev. Mr. Gushing honored and respected this body, and would 
say that he had excluded a pastor of a Slaveholding church from his 
pulpit, though he offended several of his parishioners by it. 

Rev. Mr. W. H. Beecher knew Mr. Gushing to be a politic man, and 
was unwilling to have this Convention take an odious step just to give 



21 

him an excuse for staying out of it. We must proceed wisely and 
strongly, and declare Slaveholding inherently sinful. 

Mr. Metcalf perceived a similarity of sentiment, though a dis- 
agreement in the use of words. We ought to agree upon language 
which will unite all in reference to the abominations of Slavery, in all 
its principles and practices. 

Rev. Mr. Beecher. — The difference is only in reference to the word 
inherent; the use of this word will, in the opinion of some brethren, 
create a difference between honest anti slavery msn. 

Rev. Mr. Basset. — The very opposition to the word is a good rea- 
son for retaining it. 

Dr. CuEEVER had contended all along with the American Board 
in reference to the sin's being inherent. Ue now agreed with Mr. Basset 
that the opposition to that word under the present circumstances was 
a good reason for retaining it. 

He said he was reminded on this occasion, as on many others, of 
that profound apothegm uttered by Edmund Burke in defence of a sys- 
tem of radical reform, and of the thoroughness and boldness needed in 
carrying it out, namely, that we must not be hampered by the timid pru- 
dence with which a tame circumspection so frequently enervates the 
worts of beneficence. In doing good, Burke said, we are cautious, lan- 
guid, easily deterred by obstacles and oppositions, and of all things 
afraid of heing too much in the right. But the works of malice and 
injustice are executed in a very different manner; they are finished in a 
bold, masterly style, touched as they are with the spirit of those vehe- 
ment passions, that call forth all our energies, whenever we oppress and 
persecute. 

Let us, on the present occasion, lay this wisdom to heart, and be- 
w'are of such lukewarmness and timidity, in pleading the cause of the 
oppressed, and contriving their deliverance. Let us adopt the bold 
tactics of the oppressor, in behalf of the oppressed ; we shall never con- 
quer if we do not. Let us affix to this word Slaveholding .^ the blackest 
stigma of crime that God's truth allows; let us brand its guilt with the 
utmost degree of reprobation marked for it in the Word of God, going 
just as far as God permits, and no farther. Then we are right, but 
with any thing less than God's truth, in the conflict against this damn- 
ing sin, we are wrong. We must take the Prophet Nathan's mode, 
not waiting to settle definitions, or make a compromise by abstractions, 
but declaring plainly. This is the sin, and thou art the man. 

And we must beware of giving to our adversaries, by means of these 
abstractions and hair-splittings, and word technicalities, the very oppor- 



22 

tunity of evasion which they desire. We only manufacture a shield for 
the slaveholder, and cover his guilt with it, by this tenderness as to 
slaveholding, this reluctance to stamp the act of sin as sin, and to con- 
nect the quality of guilt always with the name. The policy of admitting 
that there can possibly be such a thing as a just and Christian slave- 
holding, reminds us of what Dr. Rae told us, in his lecture at Xew 
York, on the wonders of the Arctic regions, about the sagacity of the 
foxes in stealing and devouring the hares. He said that in order to get 
near enough to their prey to seize them, the foxes would imitate the 
position, motion, and appearance of the hares, squatting on their hind 
legs, hanmnof down their forelegs, elongating their ears, and thus thev 
would get near enough to their unsuspecting victims to seize and de- 
stroy them. And thus the slaveholder will grasp and detain his victims, 
by the pretence of doing it as a Christian, with good intentions, and 
under justificatory circumstances. Admit that slaveholding is ever con- 
sistent with Christianity, and foxes might not only make themselves 
hares, but wolves lambs, on such a principle. Let us call things by 
their ri^ht names. 

Dr. Rae told us likewise of the cunning of the foxes, when they 
found out the manner in which the hunters set their gun-traps, with the 
trigger fastened by a hne to the bait, so that the moment the foxes at- 
tempted to take the bait, the gun went off, and the thief was shot in the 
very act of robbery. When they found this out, they would dig a 
trench in the snow underneath the line and bait, and then, advancing to 
the bait below the range of the shot, would draw it down and run off 
with it, while the shot whizzed over their heads perfectly harmless. 
Just thus you are furnishing tactics of evasion to the slaveholder, by 
which he can escape the charge of such guilt as the Bible drives at him. 
Bv refusing to brand slaveholding as sin, you enable him to steal away 
his prey, unscathed by the charge of God's Word against him. He 
takes your bait, but avoids your shot; and you cannot touch him. It 
is not possible to level him, but with the grape-shot of God's Word fired 
right at him, as a slaveholder, and at his slaveholding, as always sin. 
You can do nothing but with the utmost plainness, applying the very 
denunciations of the Word of God, Use God's Word as he gave it to 
be used, and you will conquer. But you will never conquer by a war 
upon mere deserted outposts, by preaching or tract-making on the moral 
duties that grow out of the existence of slavery as an institution, or the 
evils of its abuse. 

You will never conquer by inquiring, as has been done deliberately, 
in high quarters, as if it were a knock-down argument, Is .Judge Jessup 



23 

an Abolitionist ? Is Dr. Tyng an Abolitionist ? Is Dr. Gordon an 
Abolitionist ? Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on 
Lira? This expediency is the religion and tactics of snobs, and we 
ought not, as Christian men, to sutler ourselves to come within a hun- 
dred thousand leagues of adopting it. Let us cast ourselves on God, 
and on the word of his power, which is able to save us. Let us take 
that word as our weapon, and strike with it, and advance with it, as God 
would have us do, and God will be with us, and we shall be strong in 
him, although this movement in its beginning should be reduced down, 
not to Gideon's three hundred, but to only three. 

Dr. Cheever said it had been properly asked how the Church could 
possibly exclude slaveholders from its communion, unless slaveholding 
were declared to be a sin. Denying it to be in itself sinful, the American 
Board, on this ground, refuse even to advise the exclusion of slaveholders 
from the Choctaw and Cherokee Churches, and thus set the lamentable 
example before the whole world of the most venerated Christian body in the 
country sanctioning this terrible sin. Even if Christian men only seem 
to be slaveholders, because they are defending their fellow-beings from 
slavery, and hold them only to set them free, so that they are not slave- 
holders, but truly their brother's protector and keeper, still, while sub- 
ject to such an appearance of evil, they had much better stay out of the 
Church, than, by being admitted into it give occasion to the dreadful re- 
proach of a slaveholding Christianity. Let the Church of Christ expel 
from her sacred communion every sanction, even in appearance, of this 
great wickedness. 

Rev. Mr. Hunt wished the vote to be immediately taken. 

The motion on the amendment was lost by a majority of nearly five 
to one. 

The convention then adjourned, to meet at the Union Vestry, at two 
o'clock, P. M. 

Afteuxoon Session, at Union Church Vestry. 

Opened with prayer by Rev, Mr. Goodell. The articles of the Con- 
stitution were taken up seriatim and adopted. 

It was then moved that the Constitution be finally adoi>ted as a 
whole by the Convention, and carried unanimously. 

The DocUu-ation of Principles was then finally passed upon and 
adopted. 

The following resolutions, were then offered by Rev. Samuel Hun't, 
and adopted unauimously by the Convention : 



24 

Resolved, In view of honest differences of opinion among anti-slavery Christians 
in regard to the Bible view of slavery, their relation to slaveholding Churches, 
and to those ecclesiastical bodies and benevolent societies that embrace or tolerate 
such, as also their duties to the civil government, that the Executive Committee be 
instructed to diffuse such information and discussions through the periodical press 
and by means of tracts, as in their judgment shall seem desirable ; and that they 
also confer with the American Tract Society at Boston in relation to the publica- 
tion of such tracts as may be procured for these purposes. 

Resolved, That the Executive Committee be instructed to call the attention of 
the various local associations, of the different Evangelical denominations in sym- 
pathy with this movement, to the objects of this society, with the request that they 
shall recommend to the ministers and Churches in their connections, to form local 
societies in accordance with the plan recommended in the constitution now adopted. 

Resolved, That the Executive Committee, as soon as they are justified by the 
state of the treasury, be requested to employ public lecturers to explain and defend 
the principles of the Society, and promote the general purpose for which it has been 
'ormed. 

The following additional resolutions were then offered by Edward 
Gilbert, Esq., and adopted, with one or two dissenting votes : 

Resolved, That, in the opinion of this Convention, the charge so often made by 
pro-slavery men, that slavery exists by Divine authority in the Word of God, is 
without a shred or shadow of foundation, and hence an impious slander on the Holy 
name of God. 

Resolved, That, in the opinion of this Convention, the system of domestic ser- 
vice, instituted by God for his chosen people, was a wise and just institution, and 
was intended as a safeguard against chattel slavery. 

The following resolutions were then offered hy Mr. Goodell, and 
adopted ; 

RESOLUTIONS. 

1. Resolved, That American Slavery, as defined by its own code, and as ex- 
hibited in the practice of slave-holding, is a system of usages by which human be- 
ings are claimed, held, and treated as property — " goods and chattels personal? 
'* in the hands of their owners and possessors, and their executors, administrators, 
and assigns, to all intents, constructions, and purposes whatsoever,^ a slave being 
" one who Is in the power of a master to whom he belongs" — whose " master may 
sell him, dispose of his person, his industry, and his labor " — one who " can do 
nothing, possess nothing, nor acquire anything, but what must belong to his 
master." (2 Bravard's Digest, 229 ; Prince's Digest, 44:6, &c. ; Civil Code, Art- 
35, 173. See Stroud's Sketch, and American Slave Code, Chap. 1.) 

2. Resolved, That, under this code, and according to its established usages and 
daily and general practice, slaves are regarded and treated as the subjects of sale, pur- 
chase, barter, mortgage, sales at auction and shipments, as absolutely as any other 
property, and by the same tenui-e ; are seized and sold to pay the debts of their pre- 
tended owners, while living, and for the settlement of their estates after their 



decease ; arc transniltted by inheritance or by will, to heirs at law or legatees, 
and distributed like other property. [Vide Amer. Slave Code.] 

3. Resolved, further. That, under this code and these usages, slaves as property 
may be used, absolutely, by their o-\vners, for their own profit or pleasure, to min- 
ister to their avarice, their cruelty, their pride, or their lusts ; that slaves own no 
property, nor make any contract, not even the contract of marriage, cannot consti- 
tute families, nor have any security from separation of the nearest kindred by 
sale ; can have no mai-ital rights, no parental rights, no family government, 
no family education, no family protection : that the power of the slave-master 
[whether owner, overseer, or hirer] is virtually unlimited, and the slave is without 
protection from its cruel exercise ; that as chattels they may be worked at the dis- 
cretion of the master, as other working cattle are ; that their labor is coerced, 
without wages, extorted only by fear ; that their food, clothing, and dwellings are 
at the discretion or convenience of their masters ; that slaves cannot sue their 
masters ; that they have no power of self-redemption or choice of masters ; that the 
relation is hereditary and perpetual ; that they are denied all right to education, 
to religious liberty, to rights of conscience ; that, as between masters and slaves, 
the slaves can enjoy no privileges as religious and thinking beings, except such as 
their masters, whether Christians or Infidels, sober or drunken, may accord to 
them. 

4. Resolved, That the origin and pretended authority and validity of this so- 
called " legal relation" are to be found, not in the institutions of the patriarchs, or 
in the code of Moses (which knew nothing of human chattelhood, or of involunta- 
ry' or unpaid labor, or of any of the oppressions and abominations of modern slavery), 
but in that African Slave Trade wbich our own laws now punish as piracy, in the 
usages of barbarous and heathen African tribes, upon which our pro-slavery legis 
lators and jurists have ingrafted some of the worst features of the Slave Code of 
ancient heathen Rome (leaving out its merciful provisions for self-redemption and 
change of masters), in open violation of the British Constitution and English com- 
mon law, during our colonial history, and of our own Declaration of Independence 
afterwards ; neither the slave trade nor slave-holding ever having been legalized by 
any act of Parliament, by any of the colonial legislatures, or by the legislatures of 
the several States, but only assumed and taken for granted as a previously exist- 
ing relation [contrary to truth], thus reposing only on brute force, and extended, 
accordingly, over all classes whom the slaveholders have been able to seize upon 
and retain, — over Indians, free colored persons, and whites, especially over all the 
infant children of slave mothers, including the children of slaveholders them- 
selves. 

5. Resolved, That the relation of the slaves to society and to civil govern- 
ment grows out of their relations to their masters as property, and is determined 
and defined by it, insomuch that the slave is not regai-ded by the government that 
tolerates slavery, as having any rights, or as being the subject of legal protection, 
so that a slave cannot be a party to a civil suit, nor give testimony to injuries in- 
flicted on slaves, and are held subject to the will of all " tchite persons." Yet they 
are held amenable, as persons, to unequal and barbarous penal enactments, are 
forbidden to be educated even by their masters, and denied the Bible and the priv- 
ileges of free social worship : — regulations which even the slave master himself 
may not relax or abrogate. The statutes of the Slave States not only make no pro- 



26 

vision for general emancipation, but obstruct and prevent emancipations by the mas- 
ter. And the Constitutions of some of the States forbid the legislatures to abolish 
slavery. 

6. Resolved, That the slave system requires for its security the persecution and 
proscription of the free people of color, conceding to them only a portion of their 
rights, and exposing them to the danger of being re-enslaved. 

7. Resolved, That the white people of the Slave States, whether slaveholders or 
non-slaveholders, are deprived by the Slave Code of some of their essential 
rights, including the right to instruct their slaves, the liberty of the press and of 
free speech, and cannot be regarded as a people possessing civil, religious, and polit- 
ical freedom. 

8. Resolved, That the rights of the white people of the non-slaveholding States 
are directly and indirectly invaded by the slave codes of the slave States and of the 
Federal Government ; their liberties, to a great extent, have already fiillen a sacri- 
fice, and can never be secure while slaveholding in this counti-y continues. Therefore, 

9. Resolved, That such being the leading facts of American slavery, and such its 
fruits, no person not culpably ignorant of the facts upon which he passes Judgment, 
can, without violence to his moral nature, pretend that such a system can be inno- 
cent, nor otherwise than wicked and criminal in the highest degree. 

And no person not culpably ignorant of the Bible, as well as of the facts of 
slavery, can, without doing violence to his reason and conscience, pretend to believe 
that the Bible sanctions such a system, or does otherwise than condemn it, by all 
its leading doctrines and precepts, as a system characterized, at every point, by a 
total opposition to the law of God, and to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, a system of 
superlative iniquity, of selfishness, of malignity, of impiety, of oppression, the dead- 
liest enemy of the Christian religion of which any conception can be formed. 

10. Resolved, That the practice of slaveholding cannot differ essentially, in its 
moral character, from that of the slave code that defines and sustains it, nor from 
that of the slave system, with which they both harmonize — or which is composed 
of both of them. 

Because, slaveholding endorses both the code and the system. Because slave- 
holding is, itself, primarily, the sin, which the slave code and the slave system be- 
come sinful in 'sustaining. Because slaveholding came first, and contrived and 
produced both the code and the system, for its own security and protection. And 
because, if slsxve-holdinff were abolished, there would be an end, both to the slave 
code and the slave system. 

11. Resolved, That those who, Avhile declining to justify, directly, the slave codg 
and the slave sijstem, insist, nevertheless, that the " legal relation " between slave 
owner and slave may be held innocently, overlook three important considerations, 
namely : 

First, That strictly speaking, and according to the time-honored maxims of 
universal or common law, as laid down by the most eminent jurists, ancient and 
modern, there can be no such thing as such a " legal relation,^' nor any valid law 
for slavery. Second, That if there could be, it does not exist in this country, (by 
the testimony of eminent slaveholding statesmen and jurists,) there being a total 
absence of any municipal, positive, statute law, creating such a " relation.'''' And, 
third. That if there were such law, and such " legal relation,^'' the holding of that " re- 
lation'''' would be of the same moral character with that of the law, and the relation 



27 

iniquitous, unrighteous, criminal, a violation of the law of justice, the law of 
God. 

12. Resolved., That slaveholdinf^ is sinful, because slaveholding is man-stealing, 
a crime forbidden by the Mosaic code, and ranked by an inspired apostle, with the 
most flagitious offences, with the murder of fathers and of mothers. 

13. Resolved, That those who deny slaveholding to be "man-stealing," say, in 
effect, that there never has been, is not now, and cannot hereafter be, any such 
crime as " man-stealing." They can neither produce an instance of it, nor describe, 
nor define it. nor tell the process by which it can be committed by any man, other- 
wise than by describing acts equivalent to slaveholding. This is evident — 

Because stealing is taking what belongs to another without his coii.sent. Every 
man belongs to himself, and the slaveholder claims and holds possession of a man 
without his consent. 

Because, this is generally admitted to be the fact in respect to the original kid- 
napper of a man, and common sense and common law hold the receiver and holder 
of what is stolen to be a partaker of the theft. The law of Moses says, expressly, 
" He that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, (i. e. in 
his possession,) he shall surely be put to death." 

Because, moreover, the slaves of this country are mostly in the hands of tho 
original kidnappers, who stole them in their infancy, and enslaved them. 

14. Resolved, That those who say, as some do, that the holding of a slave may he 
imiocent, provided he be well treated, and provided he be held for his own benefit, take 
for granted what is not true, namely, that an immortal, accountable being may be 
well treated, when treated as a chattel, and denied the rights of our common human 
nature — that it may possibly be for his own good to be thus treated, to be accounted 
an article of property instead of an heir of immortality, created a little lower than 
the angels. 

1.5. Resolved, That those who place the evils of slavery in its " abuses" and not in 
the "i-ehiiion," (if they mean what their words naturally indicate,) affirm the " rela- 
tion " described by the slave code— the " relation " of the slave owner and his human 
chattel, to be a natural relation, like the relation of husband and wife, parent and 
child ; thus they sanction the slave code and the slave system ; and virtually con- 
firm the position of the ultra pro-slavery men who call slaveholding a natural rela- 
tion, " before and higher than any constitutional sanction," and who, therefore, deny 
the rights of any State or National Governments to abolish or to exclude slavery. 

The Preamble, Declaiation of Principles, and Constitution, as 
amended and finally adopted l)y the Convention, stand as follows : 

PREAMBLE. 

Under profound convictions of the inherent sinfulness of slaveholding and the 
great system of American Slavery that has grown out of slaveholding — deeply 
mortified and grieved by its continued toleration and defence in the Church — fear- 
ful of the impending judgment of the Almighty upon our beloved country on ac- 
count of it — and believing it is in the power of the people of God, under Divine 
guidance, to accomplish its overthrow — we, a company of ministers and Christiansi 
of one mind and heart, as in duty bound, by our common allegiance to the Lord 
Jesus Christ, do solemnly pledge ourselves to one another and before God, to re- 



28 

MEMBER THOSE THAT ARE IX BONDS AS BOUND WITH THEM, and tO do all that we 

can for the utter destruction of that atrocious system of chattel -slavery which is 
maintained in the United States ; and, as a means to that end, we hereby form 
ourselves into a society, to be called The Church Anti-Slavery Society of the 
United States, to be governed by the following Constitution, and to maintain this 
Declaration of Principles : 

Declaration of Principles. 

1. The rights of raan as man sacred and inalienable, without distinction of 
blood or races. 

2. Property in man impossible, as being without grant from the Creator, and 
equally contrary to natural justice and to revealed religion. 

3. The system of American Slavery and the practice of slaveholdiug essentially 
sinful and anti-Christian, and to be dealt with, therefore, as such by Christian 
Churches and Ministers. 

4. The utter inadequacy and impossibility of any remedy or relief from slavery, 
but one that insists upon its inherent wrongfulness, its total intrinsic baseness, and 
denies absolutely the " wild and guilty fantasy that man can have property in 
man ! " 

5. The duty of one family or section of the Christian Chui-ch to rebuke and re- 
fuse fellowship to another section of the visible Church that denies the rights of 
man and the common brotherhood of humanity, by defending slavery, and folding 
to its bosom slave-seUers, slave-buyers, and slave-holders. 

G. No compromise with slavery allowable, but its total extinction to be demand- 
ed at once, in the name of God, who has commanded " to loose the bands of wicked- 
ness, to undo the heavy, bm-dens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye 
break eveiy yoke." 

7. The total abolition of the vast system of American Slavery to be accepted 
as the providential mission and duty of the American Clergy and the American 
Churches of this generation, 

8. The Church and the Ministry to form the conscience of the nation in respect 
to slaver3-, and to make it loyal to the Law of God, against all unjust judgments of 
Courts and unrighteous legislation of Congress. 

9. The ^^'ord of God our charter for freedom and our armory against slavery, 
and any assertion that the Lord God sanctions slavery practical infidelity. 

10. LTtimate success sure, in the warfare with oppression, to a faithful ministry, 
and witnessing church. 

CONSTITUTION. 

The object of this Association being to unite all Christians on the basis of the 
Word of God against slavery, and to concentrate the energies of the Christian 
Ministry and of Cluristiau Churches upon the extinction of that great sin, the con- 
ditions of membership shall be the adoption of its pledge and principles, and the 
payment of an annual contribution for its support. And members of local socie- 
ties formed on these principles shall be members in full of this Society. 

Art I. The officers of this Society shall be a President, Vice-President, Secre- 
tary, and Treasurer, an Auditor, aud an Executive Committee of five, to be choseu 
annually by ballot. 



29 

Art. II. The duties of the officers and committee shall be to provide for and 
call public meetings, at such times and places as they see fit, in order to advocate 
the principles of the Society, to mould public opinion, to induce action by the 
churches with reference to slavery, and to inculcate the duties of civil government, 
of civil rulers, and of citizens, in respect to its overthrow. 

Art. ni. Besides local and extraordinarj' meetings, which may be called at 
the discretion of the officers and the committee, there shall be at least one public 
meeting annually, during the Religious Anniversary Week, in the cities of Phila- 
delphia, New York and Boston, for the free expression of the anti-slavery principles 
and sentiments of Christian Churches, as declared by this Society. 

Art. IV. The expenses incurred by the officers of the Society, in the prosecu- 
tion of their duties, by the maintenance of public meetings, lectures, and the use 
of the press, shall be met by the resources derived from the annual contributions 
of members, and by such donations as benevolent individuals and churches shall 
bestow for the use of the Society. 

Art. Y. This Constitution may be amended by a A'ote of two-thirds of the 
members present at any meeting, notice of said amendment having been given at 
any previous meeting. 

The Chair then appointed Edward Gilbert, E?q., Rev. Samuel Hunt, 
and Rev. Jonathan Cable, as a Committee on Nomination, to report 
candidates for otfice in the Church Anti-Slavery Society of the United 
States. 

The Nominating Committee reported the following list of names for 
officers, which were unanimously elected : 

President — Rev. J. C. Webster, of Hopkinton. 

Vice-President — Rev. W. H. Beecher, of North Brookfield. 

Secretary — Rev. Henry T. Cheever, of Jewett City, Conn. 

Treasurer — Dea. I. Washburn, of Worcester. 

Executive Committee — Hon. Elmer Brigham, of Westboro' ; Rev. 
Samuel Hunt, of Franklin ; Dea. I. Washburn, Charles Ballard, Esq., 
and Rev. Chester Field, of Worcester. 

The President of the Convention being under the necessity of leav- 
ing at this stage of the proceedings, Rev. Mr. Goodell was called to the 
Chair. After solemn prayer by Rev. Mansfield French, of New York, 
Convention adjourned sine die. 

A public anti-slavery meeting was held at Washburn Hall in the 
evening, at which Rev. Henry T. Cheever presided, and prayer was 
offered by Rev. Mr. Goodell. The proceedings of the Convention were 
read by Edward Gilbert, Esq., and Rev. George W. Basset, of Wash- 
ington City, delivered a lecture from Prov. xxi : 13 : " Whoso stoppeth 
his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not 



30 

be heard." Tiie four millions of American slaves were declared to be 
pve-emineiitly, GOD'S POOR in America; and the duty of American 
Churches and Ministers in reference thereto was earnestly argued at 
great lenoth. 

A collection was taken at the close, to defray the expenses of the 
public meetings of the Convention ; and it was announced that the 
claims of the Church Anti-Slavery Society would shortly be presented 
before the Worcester Churches at a united public meeting. 

The following is from "The Worcester Transcript" of March Yth, 
correcting the misapprehensions of an editorial of March 5tli, respecting 
the position and attitude of the Convention and the resulting Church 
Anti-Slavery Society : — 

THE ANTI-SLAVERY CONVENTION. 

" The ground taken by the Convention must not be misinterpreted, for it is 
jast the groimd taken by the word of God against murder, drunkenness, idolatr}'^, 
and all sin. On no other ground can slavery be successfully assaulted as sinful. 
The ground taken by the Convention is not that the holding of a man as a free 
person, for his own protection from slavery under slave laws, is sinful, for it is 
ri"-liteous ; but that such holding is not slaveholding, and that if you call it slave- 
holding, and on that account say that slaveholding is not always sin, you shield 
both the slaveholder and his iniquity, and render it impossible to convict him of his 
guilt. The ground taken by the Convention is just this, namely : that the hold- 
ing of a man as a slave, as property', and not as a free man — the holding of a man 
against his own consent, as a chattel, is slaveholding, aad nothing else is ; and 
that slaveholding being the holding of a man as property, and so depriving him of 
all his rights, is always, under all possible circumstances, sin. It is the very 
crime of man-stealing which God has defined to be either the stealing, the selling, 
or the holding of a man as a slave. This is always sin, and can be nothing but 
sin ; and the Convention say so, and all good men, when the sophistry with which 
theological hair-splitters darken the subject is swept away, will rejoice that they 
have said so, and that at length the way is open for a union of all Christians on 
the basis of God's "Word against the gigantic iniquity of slaveholding. This is the 
ground defended by Dr. Cheever. 

" Now, so far from the churches being unprepared or unwilling to take this 
ground, which is precisely the ground taken by the Convention, it is the very 
ground on which they desire to be established, and will hail it with delight. They 
are kept back from it only by just such reasons and misconstructions as certain 
gentlemen, according to the account in your paper, endeavored to persuade the Con- 
vention to adopt. The churches are longing to see the ministry come out plainly 
with God's Word against the sin of slaveholding. The churches are not a parcel 
of Ephraims, concluding that gain is godliness, and that a profitable iniquity is not 
a sin in itself, not malum per se. How many persons are there in the churches that 
know what this phrase, malum per se, means? Yet, ministers are continually 
ringing its changes in their ears, till they think it is some profound, indisputable 
argument. 

" But the churches no more believe that slaveholding is not, in itself, sinful. 



31 

than tliey believe that murder is not, in itself, sinful. Thej are as well prepared 
a'.id as willing to say that slaveholding is inherently sinful, as they are to say that 
murder is inherently sinful. If a man should say that men sometimes kill one 
another by accident, and therefore that murder is not, under all circumstances, sin- 
ful in itself, and must not be called sinful, the churches would scout at such non- 
sense. If a man should say that the killing of another by accident is murder, and 
should contend that all killing, under all circumstances, is murder, and therefore 
that murder ought never to be said to be sinful in itself, you would regard him as 
a dishonest reasoner, if not as a rogue who wishes to contrive an apology for the 
murderer's guilt. 

" Now the word ??iMr(7e?' might just as properly be applied to killing in self- 
defence, or to the killing of a murderer in protection of your wife and children 
from his brutal assault, or to the execution of a murderer by the sheriiF, as the 
word slaveholding to the keeping of a man, a brother, under slave law, for the pur- 
pose of giving him his freedom. That is not slaveholding any more than the kill- 
ing of a murderer, to keep your wife and children from being killed, is murder. 
Yet murder is under all possible circumstances a crime, and so is slaveholding 
under all possible circumstances a crime ; because murder is the intentional kill- 
ing of a man with malice against him, and slaveholding is the intentional holding 
of a man as property, against his own will, and without his contract or consent. 
Slaveholding is the intentional killing of his personal freedom, and the transmuta- 
tion of him from a person into a thing. And this is always, under all circum- 
stances, in itself, a crime. And the churches are not only prepared to sustain a 
convention that will take this high ground, but will rejoice with all their heart 
that it is taken, let hair-splitting and technical theologians say what they please. 
The churches will be glad to have us call sin. sin." 

" A Member of the Convention." 











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